Just a short piece today Mets fans. And the subject? Short, of course. We haven’t talked much about shortstop in the preseason because there has been so much other news to dwell on – the Soto acquisition, the resurgence of Brett Baty, the injuries to the pitching staff.
There is a reason that short doesn’t dominate the news – we are so confident that Francisco Lindor will perform well after he proved last year that he is one of the top players at that position in MLB. We know that he works tirelessly on his craft and even hosted workouts for other players like Mark Vientos over the winter. So he will be ready, right?
Francisco Lindor is batting .193 this spring. That’s after a 2-4 game yesterday. I know that spring training statistics are not significant because there are many moving pieces, adjustments, and re-learning that critical muscle memory. But with the top of the order batting below the Mendoza line, wouldn’t that be a problem for Mendoza?
Worried? Well, not yet. Last year he batted .145 in the pre-season and everything worked out fine by the end of the year. Unfortunately, he also hit .210 in April as the Mets got off to a horrendous start that cost them a chance at winning the NL East.
This year’s team cannot afford to start like last year’s. There is too much riding on the improvements to the team, including the huge investment in Juan Soto. I don’t expect the best record in MLB, but I would hope they will be above .500 heading into the summer.
The lineup is more complete this year, even with the injury to the other Francisco, but with the bats that follow in 2,3,4 we need the captain to be on base often and scoring regularly.
I have confidence that Lindor will come around, but would feel much better if he were batting .240 by now. What are your thoughts?
6 comments:
Lindor reminds me of an old racehorse I used to see back in the day at my neighborhood Aqueduct Racetrack
Silky Sullivan
Was well know for coming out of the gate trailing last
However
At the one third poll his jockey would go to the whip and Silky would take off like Jesse Owen's back in the Olympics
I don't worry about a guy that brings so many intangibles to this team
We have the next 15 years to see whether 765 million spent on 1 player was a wise choice and as far as Lindy goes he's probably the best free agent we ever signed all things considered.
I'm not worried about Lindor. Yeah, it would be nice for him to be mashing now, but he'll be there soon.
They have played with a "slowly get ready" line up...put all the big hitters in the line up, and everyone is gonna rock, right out of the gate. Lindor will be caught up in the updraft.
Spring training is meaningless. Yes, Frankie has started out slowly the past few years. But that doesn't necessarily mean that he is going to have a poor April, again. Just look at Baty's spring training compared to April and May over the past few years. Hopefully, Baty continues his hot bat and exemplary play into the season and throughout!
Spring training stats are deceptive. Given Austin Wells's (on the Yankees) spring , his HR total translates into over 60 HRs over the course of the upcoming season. Let's first see him hit 20 dingers!
Moreover, hitters are trying out new swings, pitchers attempting new pitches and many minor league players who will not play in the bigs are competing. So, the stats are indeed specious.
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